Re: XPT Whinge,(cont)

["Jack" <bd107@tsn.cc>]

Just as an example of high utilisation.....  the original 15 units have all
done over 5million kilometres..... and the last four   2015-2018  have all
done over 2 million...  the last 4 are all onto their 3rd engines....
think for a minute... in the 40 odd years 44classes were in service it is
doubtful any of them reached these high kilometrages...

For what they are... these units have provided solid service.....  they need
repowering.. no doubt about that... there are 24 actual blocks to run 19
units.... u can only rebuild engines so many times b4 they are worn out....
the thing that has not helped is that these things are designed 4 five cars
not seven... so they have had the guts flogged out of em for years... and
it's beginning to show... when they were first introduced the engines were
rebuilt after 8000 hours   now it is 15000 hours..... the only reason is
money .....  the new blocks they are talkin about cost about $600000 a
pop..... a rebuild costs approx 250k.... they also use about 15% less
fuel... so the rebuilding of worn out engines is not ecconomical at all.....
in the long run.... to refit all the units would cost just about nothing
because u would save on 2 rebuilds per unit  plus fuel savings..... but tell
the bean counters that

Cheers
Jack
Cheers
Jack
David Johnson wrote in message <366D3087.69335D7A@ozemail.com.au>...
>Jack wrote:
>
>>  the insides of the trains are not flash mainly
>> because of the short turnaround times and the lack of time to do much
with
>> em...... if ya knew thyre cycle u might understand
>
>How true.  Countrylink's XPTs boast one of, if not, THE highest utilisation
>rates in the world.  Correct me if I'm wrong (John, are you watching?) but
I
>think that the utilisation is around 93%
>
>--
>David Johnson
>CityRail Guard
>trainman@ozemail.com.au
>http://www.ozemail.com.au/~trainman/
>
>